The Templars review: Dan Jones on the short history of God's enforcers

By Steven Carroll

1 December 2017 — 5:03pm

The Templars

Dan Jones

The Templars. By Dan Jones.

Photo: Supplied

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Many of us have heard of the Knights Templar – but who were they? Dan Jones' comprehensive study answers the question in a most entertaining way. It seems they numbered only eight when they were founded in 1119, initially as bodyguards protecting pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. But humble as their origins were – their name is shorthand for poor knights of the temple in Jerusalem – they grew over a 200-year period between one crusade and another to be wealthy, feared and revered: God's enforcers in the Middle East, Europe and the UK. Too powerful for King Phillip of France, who rounded them up in 1312 and eliminated them. But, as Jones notes, their legend lingers on in novels such as The Da Vinci Code. Highly informed and imaginatively written, Jones takes us past fanciful fiction into the reality behind the legend.